Friday, January 18, 2013

This is rich: Israel to cause the collapse of the 'human rights council'

You might recall that in March 2012, Israel suspended all cooperation with the United Nations 'human rights council' after the terror-supporting group established a 'fact finding' mission to investigate 'Israeli abuses' in the Golan the same week that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad murdered hundreds of his fellow citizens.

That step is putting the council in an uncomfortable position. Israel is due for its quadrennial Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the council on January 29. The UPR cannot be done without the cooperation of the country being reviewed. In the last go-round, every country showed up. Not this time. Israel has no plans to show up.

Once HRC officials realized that Israel's decision would also affect
UPR, they panicked. UPR can only work if there is 100% state
participation. Without UPR, the façade of a reformed HRC is now in
jeopardy. On November 28, 2012, the HRC President sent a desperate
letter to Israel trying to guilt it into participation by ironically
promoting the "universality" of the process. When Israel didn't bite,
the HRC met this week and openly chastised Israel for refusing to
participate in the discredited framework.

In concert with the UN, NGOs predictably began issuing condemnations.
The NGO WILPF, in Orwellian fashion, lamented that "Letting the
non-cooperation of a State produce a double standard in the UPR process
and setting such a precedent would undermine its object and purpose,"
while ignoring the decades of double standards aimed at Israel. No
doubt, similarly self-righteous statements will soon appear from HRW and
others.

Of course, none of these actors offered to take concrete steps, such
as repealing Agenda Item 7, to end the systemic bias at the HRC. And in
typical HRC fashion, Venezuela was selected to preside over Israel's UPR
in absentia.

The fact is that the UN, HRW, and the other organizations that are
responsible for the dysfunctional state of affairs at the HRC have no
one to blame but themselves. Some have engaged in half-hearted efforts
to end the bias, while others have actively encouraged it through
activities like the immoral Goldstone process. If the collapse of UPR is
what it takes to force real change at the HRC and to end the
stranglehold of abusive regimes at that institution, it will be worth
it.

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About Me

I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 12 to 33 years and eight grandchildren. Three of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com